Granted, this primarily applies to our American crowd, but depending on what you dang furreners have to deal with, you ought to be able to adapt the contents to your own country's hassles.
************
Andy Rooney's CBS Newsman
Tips for Handling Telemarketers
Three Little Words That Work !!
(1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..." Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 39 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas:
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 39 cents.
The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea !
If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Yes this is good stuff, I'm gonna try it next time some telemarketer calls and interrupts me in the middle of a video game.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Is that second one true? I'd always heard that the computer dials a group of numbers together, and only the first person to pick up gets connected to the salesperson. Everyone else gets silence.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
No, if you've never gotten one of these, count yourself lucky. You pick up and say hello... there's a bit of a pause, then you can tell when the recording kicks in.
--Jonah
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
I keep getting collections calls for a person who doesn't live here. Used to be I'd answer and tell whoever that that person doesn't live here. And the calls would stop for a while. But then they'd come back. And lately it's an autodialer and there just isn't anyone to talk to and the number they give just rings and rings. 8:30 AM on a Sunday. It's a party.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Collection calls like for a debt? Yeah, that's a real problem, there was an article on the msn website about it and how to deal with it. But that was a long time ago. I think the article suggested consulting a lawyer, they may be able to give you some information. The article said that eventually they may start sending you constant mail, and even calling you at work, but if it's for someone you don't know, that may not happen. Even when you manage to get a hold of someone from the agency they may keep harrassing you.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I'm so doing this.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"No, if you've never gotten one of these, count yourself lucky. You pick up and say hello... there's a bit of a pause, then you can tell when the recording kicks in."
What recording? We're talking about the calls where you pick up and there's nothing but silence.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
I've never had one of those, and this is not one of those that this is about. This is the automated "Hello, have you ever considered..." recorded sales calls.
--Jonah
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
No, it's not.
"(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?"
They didn't say "with a recording on the other end". I don't know how you've never gotten one of those. They're quite common.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I made an email account that I use to sign up with websites that are questionable. I put my cell phone in the US 'Do Not Call' list. I changed my last name. Go fig it works.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I just use your name when logging into 'questionable websites". Soon, you'll be recieving all sorts of straight-porn spam (and probably more Trek spam as well).
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